1
"Listen, you [lovely] cows of Bashan, who live on Mount Shomron, who oppress the poor and grind down the needy, who say to their husbands, 'Bring something to drink':
2
Adonai ELOHIM has sworn by his holiness that your time is surely coming. "You will be dragged away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks.
3
You will leave through breaks in the wall, each woman right behind the next, and be sent off to Harmonah," says ADONAI.
4
"Come to Beit-El, and commit crimes; to Gilgal, and commit more crimes! Bring your sacrifices in the morning and your tithes after three days;
5
burn leavened bread as a thank offering; brag in public about your voluntary offerings; because that's what you love to do, Isra'el!" says Adonai ELOHIM.
6
"I made your teeth clean of food in all your cities, left you nothing to eat in all your villages; still you haven't returned to me," says ADONAI.
7
"I withheld the rain from you three months before the harvest. I made it rain on one city and not on another - one field had rain, while another with no rain dried up;
8
from two or three cities they would stagger to one city for water to drink, but there wasn't enough; still you haven't returned to me," says ADONAI.
9
"I struck your crops with hot winds and blight, your many gardens and vineyards; the cutter-worms devoured your fig and olive trees; still you haven't returned to me," says ADONAI.